Steven has improved massively since their last fight, a year ago, and is getting better all the time. before and day of the fight)

Good to get another shot after his last performance which won fight of the year and he was very unlucky not to win. He did suffer from sickness the night before and the day of the fight (not making excuses just saying) and just gassed with no energy.

If you didn't see it with your own eyes, or hear it with your own ears, don't invent it with your small mind and share it with your big mouth!

Steven has improved massively since their last fight, a year ago, and is getting better all the time. before and day of the fight)

Good to get another shot after his last performance which won fight of the year and he was very unlucky not to win. He did suffer from sickness the night before and the day of the fight (not making excuses just saying) and just gassed with no energy.

Does not sound like an excuse at all, I am looking forward to this fight it's Curts to loose imo

Another title shot and after being finished is a bit surprising. Nonetheless it's a good fight. Would have preferred a fight we haven't seen though, at least for the title. Rogers or Teodorczuk vs Warburton would have been cool.

From a Scottish MMA point of view though it's excellent and I think Ray will have more tools to do it against Warburton this time around.

With regards to the illness thing from NYE, I think a lot of fighters do weight cut themselves into bad spots. I hear it a lot - "Oh, I was ill on the day of the fight", "I got sick after weighing in" etc and I'm not going to say they're not ill, I have respect for most of these guys and believe what they say. However, it can largely be self inflicted because it's a pretty traumatic thing to do to your body and puts it in a very vulnerable state. Starving your body, depleting it rapidly, and then doing the opposite, all in the space of 24-48hrs is bound to have negative effects sometimes.

If you choose to fight, it is of my opinion that you've deemed yourself well enough to compete and I wouldn't publicly come out and give an excuse as to why I'd lost afterwards. An "excuse" doesn't have to be a negative term by the way, it's just the reason someone gives.

That said, the first fight between Stevie and Curt was very close. Both great fighters, and it's a worthy title fight.

With regards to the illness thing from NYE, I think a lot of fighters do weight cut themselves into bad spots. I hear it a lot - "Oh, I was ill on the day of the fight", "I got sick after weighing in" etc and I'm not going to say they're not ill, I have respect for most of these guys and believe what they say. However, it can largely be self inflicted because it's a pretty traumatic thing to do to your body and puts it in a very vulnerable state. Starving your body, depleting it rapidly, and then doing the opposite, all in the space of 24-48hrs is bound to have negative effects sometimes.

If you choose to fight, it is of my opinion that you've deemed yourself well enough to compete and I wouldn't publicly come out and give an excuse as to why I'd lost afterwards. An "excuse" doesn't have to be a negative term by the way, it's just the reason someone gives.

That said, the first fight between Stevie and Curt was very close. Both great fighters, and it's a worthy title fight.

It's good to get a fighter's perspective on a topic like this.
When I read about reasons/excuses, call them what you will, I'm always left thinking one question.
Would you have bought this up if you would have won?